THIS month the new Health and Work Programme goes live. It’s the government’s latest back to work scheme focused primarily on the disabled and those with physical and other health conditions.

It is somewhat ironic that a national scheme like this has emerged because the Tory government has spent the past eight years axing disability benefits, independent living allowance and access to mobility vehicles – tools that would normally help a disabled person take a step closer to the workplace.

Schemes like this do nothing to support them back into an ever dwindling jobs market.

This programme is just another glorified soundbite to make out the government are doing something constructive.

The truth is the disabled have been systematically stripped of vital monetary support and nothing can mask that fact.

I did notice one thing. The scheme, which has a nationwide budget of £130m a year, will be run by private agencies, which means by the time they’ve taken their hefty cut, very little will be left for those the programme was originally designed for.

Stephen Dixon, Redcar